


always by your side

by meltingcremepuff



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meltingcremepuff/pseuds/meltingcremepuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What if at the end of S2, Carmilla has to go because of Laura’s safety. Laura is devastated but then she adopts a cat, a little black one just because it reminds her of Carmilla. Carmilla never left, she changed to be able to stay with Laura and take care of her.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	always by your side

**And what if…**

Laura never actually names the little black cat, but rather alternates between the many nicknames Carmilla used to give her. But it doesn’t matter what Laura calls the cat--she always appears at Laura’s feet within minutes of being summoned.

Sometimes, between classes and work, Laura tells her little black cat about a broody vampire girl who was too heroic for her own good, and Carmilla purrs extra loudly whenever she hears Laura unknowingly shower her with praise. But on the nights when Laura whispers how Carmilla was her light and how much she missed her girlfriend, the purring turns into soft meows, as though the cat were trying to comfort the human. Those nights are hardest, when Carmilla would want more than anything to reveal her big ruse.

After graduating, Laura drifts around until she buys a little house with a garden where she can watch the stars because they remind her of Carmilla. The little black cat always cuddles up with Laura, rubbing her tiny cheeks all over her human, purring whenever Laura shows affection. On most nights, they sit together, Laura rambling on about her day to her cat and watching the stars. Kitty Carmilla listens as Laura names the few constellations she learned during her time with Carmilla at Silas. Laura still finds her cookies missing from the pantry and dead rats littering the garden all the time because Carmilla needs to feed but would rather drink rat blood than leave Laura alone. Eating the cookies is just to annoy Laura. Sometimes Laura thinks she can see Carmilla’s smirk on her cat’s face. Sometimes Laura imagines it’s Carmilla’s eyes staring at her instead of the cat’s that is sprawled on her stomach (another eerily Carmilla trait).

One day Laura brings home a girl. Carmilla never acts anything but indifferent towards the new woman in Laura’s life. Carmilla watches Laura slowly fall in love with this stranger, and their time spent cuddling and stargazing become few and far in between. Most nights, Carmilla escapes to her little nest of stolen clothing (all Laura’s) on the roof, where she stays curled up with her ears flattened and tail wrapped around her paws. She is loathe to leave Laura’s side, but out in the open, she hears less of _them_ and can see the stars. The moment Laura’s girlfriend is out the door for work, Carmilla slinks back into the house and buries herself in one of Laura’s drawers of clothing. It is the only place that smells like her, rather than _them_.

When Laura comes home one day with a ring on her finger, the little black cat disappears for a week. Laura nearly panics, but her fiancé assures her that her “asshole” cat would always come back. And it’s Laf and Perry who show up at their door with the drowned-looking black cat, frail looking and hungry for the first time.

Years pass and Carmilla stays with Laura and gets used to the human wife. More dead rats populate the garden, more cookies go missing. Children become a permanent part of the Hollises’ (and Carmilla’s) lives. Carmilla may never warm up to Laura’s wife, but even her centuries old vampire constitution cannot withstand tiny humans who look so much like Laura Hollis (only even tinier). Laf, Perry, Danny, and Kirsch’s children become regular visitors in the Hollis household.

Each time Lafontaine brings their family over, they never fail to sneak Carmilla a plush toy with a secret compartment of human blood. Carmilla never confronts Laf about it, yet she has a feeling that they know. Every time Carmilla catches Laf staring at her, she swears she can see understanding and sadness in their eyes. Carmilla only curls her small body closer into Laura’s side, allowing her human to scratch her behind the ears. Carmilla has been by Laura’s side in this cat form for so many (human) years now that she has grown content (which is enough and more than she could have hoped for) with having Laura by her side, always.

As the children grow older, Laura’s little black cat never grows, never gets sick. Laura chalks it up to good luck because she has never lost her optimism, and never will–not even decades later when her hair starts turning grey and wrinkles start appearing. Laura Hollis outlives all her old friends from Silas, and Carmilla thanks the gods who cursed her for that.

The day Laura is admitted into hospice care, rats stop dying in the garden and Laura’s wife can’t find the little black cat anywhere in their home. But in the hospital, whenever Laura’s doors shut, a little black furball crawls its way onto the bed and curls up next to Laura’s neck. During the nights, she thinks she sees a girl wrapped in black leather sitting next to her, holding her hand, whispering stories of angry fishes and goblin riddlers under the mountains. In her final days, Laura’s few lucid moments are spent with the cat and this gentle girl hiding in the shadows who looked so much like someone she used to know. When Carmilla hears Laura’s heart start failing, the cat disappears, and the girl is always there. In Laura’s final moments, Carmilla hugs her close and whispers promises of champagne and waltzes under the stars when she wakes up.

The day after Laura’s funeral, her wife comes home to find dead rats littering the garden and the little black cat curled up on the yellow pillow on Laura’s side of the bed. The cat doesn’t move for weeks, until one day it disappears with the yellow pillow. Laura’s wife has never been fond of that cat anyway, so she sweeps up the rodent corpses and forgets about the cat.

Weeks later, the children of Laura and her friends all visit the cemetery where their parents are buried. They go at night because they knew their parents, Laura especially, loved the stars. At the top of a small hill sits five small headstones etched with the names of Laura Hollis, S. Lafontaine, L. Perry, Danny Lawrence, and Kirsch. The children are spreading a picnic towel on the ground and pulling out cookies and ludicrously expensive champagne when one of them sees something odd. Leaning against their Aunt Laura’s headstone is a gaunt looking girl in ripped jeans and leather jacket. On her wrists are the batwing charms that Aunt Laura used to keep in her favorite jewelry box. And cradled in the girl’s limp arms was a faded yellow pillow. When the children shake her to tell her to leave, she doesn’t move. Her drooping, milky eyes are leveled at the starry sky.

 

 

_fin._

 

 

**But what if…**

_One day Laura comes home from work a few hours earier than usual to find Carmilla Karnstein in her kitchen, barefoot and dressed as though she had raided a Doctor Who merch store, with a mug of hot cocoa in one hand and cookies sticking out of her mouth, standing on a stool reaching wildly for the new bag of cookies that Laura hid behind all the ridiculous "healthy" food. Laura finds her very vampiric (ex)roommate in her house and flips a shit because Carmilla, panicking halfway into her transformation back into a cat, has just dropped all the cookies and spilled perfectly good cocoa and broken her dear Tardis mug._

_Carmilla stares wide-eyed at Laura for a few moments, then stammers out, “Uhh, hey C-creampuff. I was just in t-the neighbor-hood?”_

**Author's Note:**

> The original headcannon belongs to tumblr user (chocolate-and-snowflakes). I just expanded on it. Originally posted on tumblr with a few changes.


End file.
